"Disgusting basic care"

I came to ESH after a friend had an epileptic fit and broke her collar bone and had concussion. She was left lying in the cubicle for three hours in agony.No-one came to see if she needed anything. I requested pain killers on her behalf but requests were ignored. No base line observations were done at all. She had no name band on. She wasn't offered a drink. I stood by her bed for five and a half hours into the early hours of the morning because apparently there wasn't a chair in the A&E department. All very basic nursing standards were ignored. Had I not been an advocate for her I dread to think how much longer she would have laid in pain. Sadly the nursing staff I experienced were rude, unhelpful and had an attitude of not caring. I was thankful when a doctor showed up after 3 and a half hours and suggested an xray might be a good idea. (Whilst she had her xray I took the opportunity to try and find a drink and use the toilet. Neither were very successful. The drinks machine was broken and the toilets were disgusting.) The doctor, although clearly busy, took her time to establish the story with my friend and explained her plan. She was kind and understanding. Five and a half hours later after establishing her fracture she was told she could go home. No-one had listened despite repeating it that she lived alone at which point they said she needed to be with someone overnight. At 1:30am there was no-one I could ring to try and arrange for her to stay with. I could have gone home with her and slept on her sofa but as an HCA myself I had to be up at 6am to do a shift where I work (not recommend on 4 hours sleep!) I was told there were no beds, if I really had to go she would just be in A and E until something became available. Not an ideal place to be when you've got bad concussion and just want a quite dark room... I had to go home but after paying half my days wages in car park fee's I left feeling very disheartened and worried. Not all NHS treatment is bad, we are very fortunate to have the service...but it's stories like this that give it a bad name. And the answer lies at very basic nursing care from people who have genuine compassion and understanding.

Responses

I'm very sorry to read about your friend's experience here. Our ED matron would like to look into this further, but because this site is anonymous we need you to contact her with your tel number so she can call you to discuss a few details.

Please can you email your number and the best time to call you (noting you do shift work) to Jackie Thompson, Emergency Dept Matron on jackie.thompson@sash.nhs,uk.

Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback - we appreciate it.

Dear 'anonymous' I'm very sorry to read about your friend's experience here. Our ED matron would like to look into this further, but because this site is anonymous we need you to contact her with your tel number so she can call you to discuss a few details. Please can you email your number and the best time to call you (noting you do shift work) to Jackie Thompson, Emergency Dept Matron on jackie.thompson@sash.nhs.uk. Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback - we appreciate it. Eloise Head of Communications 01737 768511 Ext 6199

I hear from Jackie, ED Matron that you have provided further details and she is looking into the matter. Thank you for your feedback, it is important we hear about the times when we don't appear to have gotten things right, so that we can make things better going forward.